Dahlberg, Karin

Mörtberg, Maria

Abstract [en]

One logistic trend that is in focus today is centralization. The driving forces for this trend is mainly cost reductions, but also increased customer service. The supply unit Switching within Ericsson Radio Systems is responsible for the supply of AXE nodes in GSM sysytems. A supply unit within Ericsson is responsible for the delivery of a certain product group in a determined geographical area. In the present decentralized system the scope of supply for a complete AXE site solution is shared between the market units and the supply unit. The market units are local Ericsson companies situated in almost every country where they operate. Within Ericsson a project called TTC Global has been started. The objective with the project is to change from the present decentralized system to one that is centralized, in order to gain competitive advantages. The purpose of the thesis is to analyze the current supply responsibility for an AXE site solution and further to decide to what level the supply responsibility should be centralized. This includes deciding whether a complete AXE site solution should be included within the supply unit’s scope of supply. Besides the core AXE switch, a complete site solution includes all the site products that are necessary for an AXE site to function. The result of our study shows that the best solution is to centralize and include a complete AXE site solution within the supply unit’s scope of supply. The conclusions are based on theories regarding centralization and decentralization. These theories have been applied to the supply unit Switching, in order to analyze their suitability for centralization.